


Dear Child

by yeahwrite



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Body Horror, Canon Compliant, Denarians, Excessive Violence, Gen, More than Mind Control, Murder, Parental manipultion, Pre-Series, Rome - Freeform, child character, implied brainwashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24931180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeahwrite/pseuds/yeahwrite
Summary: A child makes her way through Rome, with a task given to her that she intends to complete.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Dear Child

**Author's Note:**

> Deirdre's age when she got the coin is not known, other than she was most likely very young, so it isn't specified here beyond that.
> 
> Tata is the Latin word for "daddy", like a young child in Rome would call their father.
> 
> Her positive view of her parents is also very innocent here.

The child made her way down where she was supposed to go, with a nervous sort of purpose. Trying very, very hard to hide those nerves.

Striding past numerous other children, happily playing games, without sparing a glance. They didn’t matter to Deirdre. They never had. Having always been encouraged to view them as an…other. Inconsequential. So, why should she play with them?

She was braver. She knew more than they did. She was stronger, she was better than them, like her parents! Her tata had said so especially!

And she didn’t need any of them. Especially not now. She had someone else now!

This brought a fresh smile to the little girl’s face, stride turning to more of a skip. Face lighting up in delight, at the memory of a coin being pressed into her open hand.

It did not take too much longer to arrive at where she was supposed to. A rather inconspicuous building, not too many people looking around here as a much less busy part of the city, but even if she hadn’t remembered the directions herself-

_There it is._

Someone else keeping her company, had a perfect memory.

Here they were.

Tata said what to do. Remember what he told you to say. He knows best, he knows everything ever!

“I need help. There’s- something, it hurt my parents. I don’t know where else to go. They said you helped people.” Was recited.

It was awkward. Words stumbling over each other. The dark-haired child shuffling and sounding very stiff.

But if the man realised anything was amiss with what the child had said, he certainly didn’t show it.

Instead, he frowned in concern. Leaning past his threshold, looking around, before gesturing her closer.

“Come inside, quickly.”

And with that invitation, the young girl obeyed. Trying hard to hide a smile that threatened to show. Dipping her head down instead.

She was doing it!

The doors were very quickly shut, as soon as she was through. The man was saying something else, as he stepped further in, asking her name maybe, but she wasn’t paying attention to _him_ anymore.

_Would you like me to do it, this time? I can. We don’t have to tell anyone it was me._

“No.” Deirdre muttered aloud, shaking her head. Not having yet learned to be more subtle in communicating with the Fallen now sharing her body.

“I can do it!” She asserted again, trying her best to stand tall and proud. Picturing her tata in her head, how he did it. Imagining herself standing just like that!

“Pardon?” The stupid mortal man’s brow furrowed in confusion, at the answers entirely unconnected to what he’d been saying. Then…an unease, starting to form.

Too late.

_Alright then. You can kill him, if that’s what you want._

Yes it is what she wanted, but Deirdre tensed, in the mere moment before it happened. Knowing what was about to, having practiced before – but still crucially lacking the experience needed, to properly tolerate it. Or enjoy it even, like she’d seen others do.

Even with the Fallen shielding, from what would be otherwise enough pain to stop her heart.

Deidre _shrieked_ in agony, as her bones snapped out of place – sounds of popping and cracking, filling the air around her, along with the wretched screams of a young girl as her body broke itself apart and back together again- as muscle tore and shifted, as skin hardened, sharper teeth and claws tore through gums and fingers that went from five to four respectively.

As hair lengthened into long, deadly blades.

And on a far, far more minor note, yet for some reason the child’s mind still noticed and almost fixated upon – her eyes _itched_.

By the time it was finished, she was on the floor. Claws raking deeply into the floor and hair shifting like snakes around her.

And just like that, the pain was gone. Scarcely even an echo.

_You need to get up. Remember who is waiting for you, little one._

Deirdre was reminded, as she tried her best to find her feet, stumbling on legs that were no longer the way she was used to. Stumbling almost like a newborn foal. The legs her mater had taught her to walk with as a baby.

She looked up, seeing the man was gone. She was still blocking the door, so he had to have fled further into this place, in the time it had taken to get ready.

_He’s trapped in here, he won’t be going anywhere. Especially not with me helping you._

And then the chase started properly. A pounce and the girl was off, seeking out who the stupid insignificant mortal man.

It almost seemed like a game at this point, this point of the task. Running at full speed, like when she had chased her tata’s shifting shadow _Anduriel_ when she was _little_.

A game over quickly enough.

This place was not big enough for it to last any longer.

Shadows crowded in the room, where a mortal was cornered by a girl groomed into a weapon. Loomed over them both, making them seem, so, so small.

The girl should have pounced straight away. She knew. She didn’t even had to, she could just have her blades do it from here!

But she stopped. She didn’t know why. She didn’t like that she had. She wasn’t little any more. She was grown up. She should be able to just do this. It’s not like she hadn’t seen anybody die before. So why wasn’t she just doing it?!

_You don’t need to wait. It would be very easy, very quick and just like that, your parents will be very, very proud of you. Is that not what you want? To make them proud and be like them?_

“Listen- you’re just a child, you don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t know what Nicodemus has said to you, but that man is a _monster_ and he will spell your doom if-”

_Who is he to talk about such a great man like that? Are we going to let him?_

“Don’t say that about him!” Rage filled the young girl’s voice at the baseless insult to her parent, shoulders haunching, lips curling upwards into a snarl.

And then metallic blades surged forwards, as she pounced.

The man barely got a chance to scream, as those blades tore into his flesh, cutting into and tearing into it. It was like those ribbons she’d been bought for her hair, the strips of flesh, torn free, before the blades pierced deeper. Blood spilling more and more and covering, soaking, _drenching_ , everything here.

A final death rattle managed to escape the man’s lips. Then silence.

That stretched on. And on.

Until it was broken by a sniffle of someone trying not to cry.

Deirdre did not feel like how she had expected to, after this. She did not feel like how she was supposed to. Something churned uneasily in her stomach. She knew they’d said it was good and she’d done it! She’d done it like them! But…but something didn’t feel comfy.

It wasn’t like how it had been all those time when she saw her parents doing it.

It didn’t at all! Had she done something wrong?! Did this mean she had failed?! Was she a bad host?! Would her parents be disappointed in her?!

The young girl had hoped that these stupid doubts would be gone, forced out by the painful process of turning back into her weaker human form was finished – but they weren’t.

Thinking back again to her parents, she did like they had too, after things like there.

Scrubbing away at the blood, that covered her. Although not all of it would leave her skin. Flecks also remained, undetected, on her dark hair.

And almost none would leave the torn tunic she wore. Stained far too deep, to ever be rinsed out. Arms crossed to cover it the best it could, like that could possibly have any meaningful impact.

But like the dutiful daughter she had been raised to be, she went to head outside to where she was supposed to return to.

_It will get easier, don’t worry. Soon enough you will be doing this without any trouble at all._

Deirdre appreciated the optimistic reassurance, but still the young girl was not entirely swayed as the door opened.

And was immediately greeted by the image of one of her parents, standing outside. Waiting for her. Shadow shimmering behind him.

“Did I do well?” She asked quietly, voice wavering, as she looked up at her tata. Hands clasped and fidgeting anxiously behind her back. Desperate for any scrap of reassurance that she had.

A hand ran gently through her hair.

And a face full of pride.

“You did _very_ well, little one.”

Deirdre smiled, knowing her father would never be wrong.


End file.
